Determining Action Reversibility in STRIPS Using Answer Set and Epistemic Logic Programming

In the context of planning and reasoning about actions and change, we call an action reversible when its effects can be reverted by applying other actions, returning to the original state. Renewed interest in this area has led to several results in the context of the PDDL language, widely used for describing planning tasks. In this paper, we propose several solutions to the computational problem of deciding the reversibility of an action. In particular, we leverage an existing translation from PDDL to Answer Set Programming (ASP), and then use several different encodings to tackle the problem of action reversibility for the STRIPS fragment of PDDL. For these, we use ASP, as well as Epistemic Logic Programming (ELP), an extension of ASP with epistemic operators, and compare and contrast their strengths and weaknesses.

Decidability and Complexity of Some Finitely-valued Dynamic Logics

Propositional Dynamic Logic, PDL, is a well known modal logic formalizing reasoning about complex actions. We study many-valued generalizations of PDL based on relational models where satisfaction of formulas in states and accessibility between states via action execution are both seen as graded notions, evaluated in a finite Łukasiewicz chain. For each n>1, the logic PDŁn is obtained using the n-element Łukasiewicz chain, PDL being equivalent to PDŁ2. These finitely-valued dynamic logics can be applied in formalizing reasoning about actions specified by graded predicates, reasoning about costs of actions, and as a framework for certain graded description logics with transitive closure of roles. Generalizing techniques used in the case of PDL we obtain completeness and decidability results for all PDŁn. A generalization of Pratt's exponential-time algorithm for checking validity of formulas is given and EXPTIME-hardness of each PDŁn validity problem is established by embedding PDL into PDŁn.

A Logic For Decidable Reasoning About Actions

We consider a modified version of the situation calculus built using a two-variable fragment of the first-order logic extended with counting quantifiers. We mention several additional groups of axioms that can be introduced to capture taxonomic reasoning. We show that the regression operator in this framework can be defined similarly to regression in Reiter’s version of the situation calculus. Using this new regression operator, we show that the projection and executability problems (the important reasoning tasks in the situation calculus) are decidable in the modified version even if an initial knowledge base is incomplete. We also discuss the complexity of solving the projection problem in this modified language in general. Furthermore, we define description logic based sub-languages of our modified situation calculus. They are based on the description logics ALCO(U) (or ALCQO(U), respectively). We show that in these sub-languages solving the projection problem has better computational complexity than in the general modified situation calculus. We mention possible applications to formalization of Semantic Web services and some connections with reasoning about actions based on description logics.

A Logic For Decidable Reasoning About Actions

We consider a modified version of the situation calculus built using a two-variable fragment of the first-order logic extended with counting quantifiers. We mention several additional groups of axioms that can be introduced to capture taxonomic reasoning. We show that the regression operator in this framework can be defined similarly to regression in Reiter’s version of the situation calculus. Using this new regression operator, we show that the projection and executability problems (the important reasoning tasks in the situation calculus) are decidable in the modified version even if an initial knowledge base is incomplete. We also discuss the complexity of solving the projection problem in this modified language in general. Furthermore, we define description logic based sub-languages of our modified situation calculus. They are based on the description logics ALCO(U) (or ALCQO(U), respectively). We show that in these sub-languages solving the projection problem has better computational complexity than in the general modified situation calculus. We mention possible applications to formalization of Semantic Web services and some connections with reasoning about actions based on description logics.

Propositional Dynamic Logic for Planning

This paper presents an on going work on Propositional Dynamic Logic PDL in which atomic programs are STRIPS actions. We think that this new framework is appropriate to reasoning about actions and plans when dealing with planning problem. Unlike, PDL atomic programs, STRIPS actions have pre-conditions and post-conditions. We propose a novel operator of action composition that takes in account the features of STRIPS actions. We propose an axiomatization and prove its soundness. Completeness, decidability and computational complexity are left as future work.

An Answer Set Programming Framework for Reasoning about Agents' Beliefs and Truthfulness of Statements

The paper proposes a framework for capturing how an agent’s beliefs evolve over time in response to observations and for answering the question of whether statements made by a third party can be believed. The basic components of the framework are a formalism for reasoning about actions, changes, and observations and a formalism for default reasoning. The paper describes a concrete implementation that leverages answer set programming for determining the evolution of an agent's ``belief state'', based on observations, knowledge about the effects of actions, and a theory about how these influence an agent's beliefs. The beliefs are then used to assess whether statements made by a third party can be accepted as truthful. The paper investigates an application of the proposed framework in the detection of man-in-the-middle attacks targeting computers and cyber-physical systems. Finally, we briefly discuss related work and possible extensions.